Cemetery Ledger of Chevra Kadisha - Jerusalem, 1841-1857

Manuscript, ledger of "Chevra Kadisha" [burial society] in Jerusalem. Oriental Sephardic script in Hebrew and Ladino. Jerusalem, 1841-1857.
The volume is replete with thousands of records and details, related to burial in Jerusalem of the mid-19th century. This manuscript is a highly valuable source for the history of Jerusalem's Jews of that time; many of the details recorded here are unknown from other sources. The register contains thousands of names of the deceased, the date and place of burial, and various payment listings. Some of the entries also include the address of the deceased or the location of the start of the funeral procession (using the names of courtyards and hospitals).
The ledger also contains listings of money transfers involving the city's leaders and rabbis; listings of burial plots purchased in advance; payment of burial expenses; purchase of burial shrouds and headstones; and accounts with the various kollelim and organizations in the city who contributed to the burial expenses in cases of need ("Poor fund", "Orphans fund", "Bikur cholim fund" and others).
The ledger was written in order to organize payment among all the involved parties: the graveyard workers, families of the deceased, rabbis and charitable institutions. Also mentioned in the ledger are arrangements with leaders of the Ashkenazic community in Jerusalem and community leaders from Hebron, Safed and Tiberias (residents of other cities used to travel to Jerusalem for medical treatment, and some of them were buried in Jerusalem).
The dates listed in the notebook are the dates of burial, which are usually the dates of death as well, since in Jerusalem every effort is made to bury the deceased on the day of their passing. The listings mention various burial sections ("Kabir" in Judeo-Arabic): "Chassidim" (near the graves of the Rashash and the Or HaChayyim), "Mag'aris", "Burak", "Tomb of Zechariah", "Absalom's Pillar", "Beit HaChayyim Yashan", "Chadash", "Kohanim", "Attias", "Aryeh", "Tiya", "Kanfiko", "Machg'ar", "Polnis", "Mizrachis", "Sambuski" [Sambuski refers to the graveyard on Mount Zion, named for the prominent Sambuski family buried there].
The ledger lists thousands of deceased buried in Jerusalem, including many great Jerusalemite rabbis, such as the Chacham Bashi R. Avraham Gagin and R. Yaakov Antebi of Damascus.
The Ashkenazic deceased are listed (mostly in separate lists) usually only by first name, and occasionally only by the name of the courtyard where they lived. One of the Ashkenazic individuals mentioned often is "R. Yisrael the printer" (R. Yisrael Bak). The ledger also includes the dates of the passing of two of his sons-in-law.
The identity of the writer, as well as his official position within the burial society, is unknown. On p. 110b is a Ladino inscription signed "the young Yehuda Chaim Halevi…". On p. 237b appears a contract (in different handwriting) signed by R. "Mordechai Chaim ben Yosef Meyuchas", confirming the payment of his debt to the author of the ledger. The contract seems to indicate that the author's name was Chaim, possibly R. Chaim Yaakov Parnas, rabbi in Jerusalem and head of the Sephardic Chevra Kadisha in 1854.
The title of the first page of the listings of the deceased reads: "Register of the Deceased of Parnas". The Parnas family of Jerusalem [descendants of R. Chaim Yaakov Parnas] served as trustees of the cemeteries serving Jerusalem for over a century. Other cemetery ledgers of the Parnas family are known, from a later time period (ca. 1900-1940). These ledgers (located today in the Jerusalem city archives), are essential in the identification of graves on the Mount of Olives from that time period. This ledger, however, is from a considerably earlier time period (mid-19th century), and provides much information not found elsewhere. The known ledgers of the Parnas family were written briefly and were used to document the work of the gravediggers and the locations of graves. Unlike them, this ledger contains a great deal of organized, detailed information.
[295] leaves; approx. [410] written pages (in small, cramped handwriting). 13.5 cm. High-quality paper. Good-fair condition. Stains and extensive wear. Original leather binding, with embossed ornamentation, slightly damaged.